While the newly released emails have been seized on by conservative activists who have long been critical of Clinton's treatment of classified emails as secretary of State, the FBI already said in 2016 that a review of the emails didn't change the bureau's opinion that Clinton shouldn't face charges over email handling.

The Friday release came after a 2015 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch against the State Department seeking the release of emails containing “official State Department business” sent or received from Abedin from January 2009 to February 2013 using a non-State Department email address.

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The released messages include a single email from 2010 that contained information that was later determined to be classified.

The email markings indicate the message was never opened by Weiner on his account, but Judicial Watch pointed to that and other messages as evidence of Clinton and Abedin’s "obvious violations of law" and called on the Department of Justice to investigate them.

The FBI recovered the emails on Weiner’s computer last year after the former congressman turned in his computer to authorities as part of an investigation into an underage sexting case.

The FBI clarified Comey’s comments in a letter sent to the Senate panel, saying that only a handful of the 49,000 emails uncovered on Weiner’s laptop had been manually forwarded and that the majority of the emails got onto the computer as a result of automatic backups on Abedin’s Blackberry.

The bureau said that two of the 12 email chains containing classified information had been forwarded manually.

As Mueller files criminal charges or secures guilty pleas against Trump campaign figures, Republicans have demanded a separate special counsel investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.